Australian Bureau of Statistics

These video tutorials will familiarise you with a range of ABS products that are useful in the classroom. You can view transcripts of each segment by clicking on the triangle next to its heading.
On this page:

Transcript:
This product is ideal if you want to visually explore the spatial distribution of a Census topic as it provides thematically mapped Census statistics for your chosen location. MapStats is fast and simple to use and no mapping skills are required.
Start at the ABS homepage and click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'MapStats' in the body of the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. Search for a geographic area by using any of the tabs above the key word search box.
In this example, we will search using the keyword: 'Ballarat'. Click on the ‘Search’ button and a list of all the places that include 'Ballarat' is displayed. Select a specific geographic area from the list of results. In this example we’ve selected Ballarat Local Government Area. A Map of the selected area appears; check it is the wanted area and click on ‘Select Topic’. Notice the default count method is set as Place of usual residence. Place of usual residence is where people usually live, as opposed to place of enumeration which counts people based on where they were on Census night.
Now choose a topic and subtopic for which you want data. Let’s choose Language and Proportion of People who speak a Language other than English. Click on ‘Select Sub Location’. This will determine how the map of your chosen location will be divided. The options depend on the size of the location you have selected. Here we have the choice of a Collection District or Statistical Local Area. Let’s keep it as a Collection District and click on ‘View MapStats’. The map opens in the Summary tab and may take several seconds to load. You are now presented with a map for your chosen geographic area.
The areas are displayed in a range of colours to convey differences in the Census topics being investigated. Please note the legend at the bottom of the page. The percentage breakdown will change depending on the distribution of a particular variable in the area you select. Note that you can also view a copy of the map in Acrobat Reader or Portable Network Graphics (PNG) from the Downloads tab.
The Portable Network format should be used to copy, resize and paste the map into a report. Click on ‘Free Download’ to open file. The best maps to use are Local Government Areas by Collection districts as they display the smallest geographic area data and give a better spatial distribution of a variable. Why not generate a MapStats report for the local government area of your school and ask students to observe a topic of their choice. Can you see this being of use to your students?

Transcript:
Australian Social Trends is a great source of information articles written by ABS experts on issues of social relevance to Australian society. It will provide you and your students with a wide range of data and analysis of social topics. It aims to provide a snapshot of particular aspects of Australian society and how these have changed over time. The publication was issued annually from 1994 to 2008 but became a quarterly on-line publication in March 2009.
From the ABS homepage, click on the 'Australian Social Trends' link from the left hand navigation menu. Like all ABS publications, the Australian Social Trends link opens in the Summary tab. In the body of the Summary page you will find quick links to the latest articles as well as national and state summary tables. On the left hand menu you have access to a list of all Social Trends articles dating back to 1994. You can scroll down to view the list of articles or click on the topic hyperlinks at the top of the page. Alternatively click on the Past & Future Releases tab to access the full suite of AST publications.
There is also a link to the Australian Social Trends Seminar series. Throughout the year a series of seminars will be presented and the slides will be made available on this web page. To access articles in PDF version, click on the Downloads tab. You can download the entire publication or just choose individual articles that interest you.
The data cubes contain source tables featured in the PDF version of the publication. These can be useful and interesting datasets for students. To open the data cube, click on the Excel icon and ‘Open’ the document. The file should open in the Contents worksheet, which links to all the tables available in the data cube. Tables can also be accessed by opening any of the worksheets at the bottom of the page. Note the link to ‘Definitions’, as well as a list of publications from which the data was sourced. You can also get back to the Australian Social Trends homepage from within the spreadsheet by clicking on the link in the body of the Contents page.

Includes: A description of some of the main features of the Australian Social Trends publication and where to find it on the ABS website.
Duration: 3:09 minutes
Size: 9.00 MBAustralian Social Trends

Segment 12: Measure of Australia's ProgressTranscript:

Measures of Australia’s Progress came out of the growing interest in assessing whether life in Australia was getting better. One outcome of measuring and reporting on progress is to make sense of the world we live in. Students can use this publication as a rich information source for assignments in a range of subject areas, with a focus on longitudinal analysis. A class discussion could arise about the potential indicators of a country’s progress and the approach taken by ABS to measure progress in Australia.
The Measures of Australia’s Progress publication is found on the left-hand menu of the ABS homepage, under Key Products. The publication opens on the home page to present the latest articles on selected indicators. On the left hand menu under the Summary tab there are links to chapters and all available feature articles. In the 2009 issue, you can also access a 10 year summary for selected indicators. Here, the annual rate of change for selected summary indicators is displayed on a graph. Please note, although publication layouts may vary from year to year, the left hand navigation menu will always provide links to core information available in the publication.
We will go back to the home page via the Summary tab, and click on a topic of interest. There are time series graphs displayed with accompanying commentary. Scroll down to find related publications of interest. A list of all related publications is also found under the Related Information tab. If you would like to access the source data for use with your students, click on the Downloads tab and then click on the Excel icon. The data cube will open in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on the contents pages. Table topics covered in the PDF publication will be included in this spreadsheet. Open a table from one of the worksheets below. You can also open a table from the body of the page. Simply click on the table number to open the time series data you want. This table is displaying life expectancy for the ten year period 1997 to 2007.

Includes: How to find the Measures of Australia's progress publication and a brief demonstration of key features.
Duration: 3:02 minutes
Size: 8.75 MBMeasures of Australia's Progress

Segment 13: Yearbook Australia

Includes: How to find the Yearbook Australia series and a brief demonstration of key features.
Duration: 1:39 minutes
Size: 5 MB Yearbook Australia

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